Santa 101
by schillingklaus
Summary: The students of PCA participate in Blix' hypocritical Christmas campaign that pretends to bring Santa Claus to the children of this world.


**The Word Of Life**

* * *

><p><strong><span>Klaus Schilling<span>**

**_"_**  
><strong>Abstract: <strong>

The story is rated _PG-13_

The students of Pacific Coast Academy participate in an hypocritical Christmas campaign of greedy sponsor Blix.

**_"_**

* * *

><p><strong><span>Preface<span>**

Dear gentle reader and fellow expert for Daniel Schneider's shows and some other real-action productions by Mickelodeon Networks,

as you know very well, most Hollywood series get their Christmas special. One exception is _Zoey 101_, which may be due to the fact that its setting, a boarding school, is usually deserted during the Christmas season as the students are supposed to return to their families over the holidays.

Anyways, if you recall the Christmas specials of _The iCarly Show_, _Drake & Josh_, or _Victorious_, you will always notice that they refrain from exhibiting sufficient respect for the variety of symbolic meanings of Christmas.

It is the darkest time of the year (on the northern hemi-sphere, where the predominant culture came to grow), and it is full of romantic memories and vague hope of sunny days. Already **D. Murdock**, one of the leading experts for the history of religions, explains the detailes of this connection, based on the unbeatable classics of **Gerald Massey**, in her masterpiece _The Suns Of God_.

This is now the time to try to do justice to this subject and to understand how this relates with the collected works of Daniel Schneider—especially _Zoey 101_. We will ma the stars of _Zoey 101_ face the spirit of the darkest time of the year in order to examine their respective attitudes.

* * *

><p><strong><span>Contents<span>**

1 Wayne Gilbert Informs Chase Matthews  
>2 The Raven And Santa Claus<br>2:1 Chase Matthews Suffers A Lonely Christmas At Covington  
>2:2 Odin And Santa Claus<br>2:3 Chase's Despair  
>3 Blix' Christmas Campaign And The Campus Of PCA<br>3:1 Santa Claus And The Origins Of Blix Softdrinks  
>3:2 Blix Claims Bringing Santa Claus To The Children Of The World<br>3:3 Quindolyn Pensky—Blix' Team For Research And Development  
>3:4 Logan Reese Holds Shares Of Blix Inc<br>3:5 Dolores Martinez As A Santa Faerie  
>3:6 Zoë Brooks Redesigns The Outfit For Santa Claus<br>3:7 Michael Barret Ponders Santa Claus And Mr Takato  
>4 Dystopia On The Campus<br>5 Chase Matthews And Addison Singer In Manhattan

* * *

><p><strong><span>1 Wayne Gilbert Informs Chase Matthews<span>**

For many ingenuous viewers of _Zoey 101_, the show had come to a happy ending when stars **Zoë Brooks** and **Chase Matthews** kissed upon the high school ball featured in 2008 episode _Chasing Zoey_. Rather than being the title of the episode, this phrase would have been a more comely summary of the whole canon story—all the way from the pilot through the conclusion of the series.

But this atitude neglects the fact that the whole society of Califoria's most illustrious boarding school, **Pacific Coast Academy**—which is know to you as the canonical setting of _Zoey 101_—, has been permanently betrayed in a stayed of moral decadence and corruption; as a conclusion, it is comely to state that the show had not come even close to a conclusion.

So, let us start where the canon had left us alone. After the encounter, Chase had to return to London in order to complete hisacademic year. After all, the visit had been just an excursion, and Chase appeared to be extremely happy. But there were more clouds troubling his soul then there had been during the four seasons leading up to the terminating special.

The night was gone, and light was shed once more upon the campus in order to reveal the truth covered cowardly during the celebrations. One of the less happy students was **Wayne Gilbert**, a regular of _Zoey 101_ that ingenuous viewers of the show seem to care little about; but he is more significant than most people are able to understand. During the final special, he had correctly compared the situation with an approaching apocalyptic scenario, invoking one **Dr. Doom**, a cartoon villain from Wayne's cherished _Marvel_ series; unlike all the shallow-minded students, Wayne (also known as _Fire Wire_ was appraising the circumstances in an apprtopriate manner, and he did not refrain from informing Chase about what had been going on during the period of his absence from the campus.

There had been quite a few things to report, but two of them were more important for Chase than anything else:

Wayne mentioned that Zoë Brooks had been dating another boy, **James Garret**, during the weeks leading up to the celebrations; this alone would not have disturbed Chase—if he had heard those news from Zoë or from one of their closer common friends, such as **Michael Barret**, **Quindolyn Pensky**, **Logan Reese**, or **Dolores Martinez**. But having to be informed by an outsider was—once more—too much for him to bear. You remember how he had gone through a similar situation in 2007 special _Goodbye, Zoey!_. Chase was—at first glance—willing to give Zoë another chance and let her explain the situation; als, the next message from wayne was even harder to digest for poor little Chase.

In 2008 episode _Vince Is Back_, violent somatic narcissist Vincent Blake had been pardoned not only by the administration of Pacific Coast Academy, but also by Chase's—falsely so-called—friends; Dolores had even become Vincent's mistress and partner for the celebrations featured in the series closer. Vincent had been expelled from the boarding school (as featured in 2006 episode _The Great Vince Blake_) for brute physical violence against Chase Matthews. As you, dear gentle reader, recall, this act of aggression had been the football star's response to being denounced by Chase Matthews for having cheated—as usual—in some academic test, resulting in a suspension that made him miss out on a vital match.

Chase would have been able to forgive Zoë her adulterous demeanour if she had told him about that in person; likewise, he would have given her another chance to fess up and explain this one misdeed if she had not betrayed him otherwise; even more, he would have been willing to forgive Vincent Blake his murderous attempt on his life; but then he learned that Zoë had been bribed by Dolores into believing in Vincent's newborn innocence with a bag of German candy, and he inferred correctly that his value had sunk to way less than that. There was—and so he concluded right in time—no way to forgive the former girl of his dreams this one unspeakable kind of vile treason.

Of course, you probably guess—correctly—that Wayne Gilbert, who had tried hor quite a few months to stalk and court Zoë Brooks—in vaoin—, had got very selfish reasons for telling Chase and bringing an appropriate end to his dreams of a life with that one girl; but this did not, by no means whatsoever, justify Zoë's misdemeanour towards Chase. He was outrageously angry for not having seen through the blond Miss Perfect's true nature for over three years. As a consequence, Chase would not return to Pacific Coast anymore.

* * *

><p><strong><span>2 The Raven And Santa Claus<span>**

* * *

><p><strong><span>2:1 Chase Matthews Suffers A Lonely Christmas At Covington<span>**

Let uns now return to Chase's time spent abroad in **Covington**, the noble academy in the outskirts of the royal capital featured in 2008 episode _Trading Places_.

Here, he had to spend one Christmas, far from any friends and family, alone in desperation. There would have been enough time to return to America for the winter break, but he had not done so. Usually, Chase would have returned hime in order to see his favourite grandmother, but this old lady's death, featured in 2006 episode _Chase's Grandmother_, had changed this situation; as a consequence, he had not seen any reason for returning to his homelands for Christmas.

Here at Covington, there was a residence hall called **House Of Anubis**, featured in Nickelodeon's eponymous show. The canon of the show, however, is a dream of its main character **Nina Martin**, also known as **Dakota North** from the 2008 episode _Babysitting Dakota_ of Nickelodeon's _True Jackson VP_. This girl was a teenage model working for fashion labels in Manhattan, and—as such—she had travelled once to Covington in order to present the new school uniforms, designed by one of these labels. The dream had been triggered by Nina's encounter with **Victor Rodenmaar**—a custodian featured throughout _The House Of Anubis_—and his stuffed raven **Corbierre**. While Nina's dream was scary enough, Chase's impression, received from encountering the same example of undead fowl, had been by no means any lewss uncanny.

Some of you are familiar with **Edgar Allan Poe**, the grandmaster of American poetry; this veritable prophet of American civilisation is known for his wonderful poem _The Raven_, featuring a desperate man that had lost a woman named Lenore; it concluded, after a tedious kind of conversation with a raven during the month of December, with the insight that there was no hope left.

This was now exactly the situation of Chase Matthews after the loss of his grandmother, an emptiness that no silence was able to cover.

* * *

><p><strong><span>2:2 Odin And Santa Claus<span>**

Chase Matthews had learned a lot about literature, which was little surprising for someone willing to launch a career as a playwright at the Broadway, or at least in Los Angels as a screenwriter for Hollywood. He had already heard about Edgar Allan Poe and his _Raven_, but he had hitherto not been able to understand why he was concerned at all; this situation was, of course, now about to change, and Chase started thinking deeply about the deeper meaning of the raven. As he had seen Corbierre in the House Of Anubis, he had thought about an Egyptian origin, but there are many mythic ravens to be encountered all over the world. Indeed, we will find a lot of information in the ancient Scandinavian mythology.

Nordic deity **Odin** was known for having two messenger ravens: **Huginn** and **Muninn**; he was also seen as respoinsible for the terrifying mythic event of the **Wild Hunt**, which was close to Chase's experiences featured in 2007 episode _The Curse Of PCA_. As terrifying as the Wild Hunt may be, it has got a good purpose, as it was supposed to drive out the spirits of the winter and thus to enable nature to recover and to regenerate. Odin wrote eight-legged steed **Sleipnir**, forerunner to the sleigh of Santa Claus which would be drawn by eight reindeers; he wore a magical ring, **Daupnir**; and he wielded a magical javelin, **Gungnir**.

We would have to go out of our way in order to examine all the allusion to those symbols, along with their significance, throughout the canon of _Zoey 101_. It would be of little significance in this context, as Chase had not been aware of their presence while still a student at Pacific Coast Academy, and so they were not part of his reminiscences of his life at the most illustrious boarding school of the golden state.

Odin was known to distribute a few gifts, and this made him get associated with the legend of **St. Nicholas**, a bishop from the times of **Emperor Constantine**, the enforcer of an authoritarian form of Christianity, comparable to the rule of **Adolf Bradford**, the son of the founder of Pacific Coast Academy as portrayed in 2005 episode _Prank Week_. That so-called saint is celebrated the sixth of December, especially in the Dutch-speaking world as **Sinterklaas**. It is of course not hadrd to see the connection between the words _sinterklaas_ and _santa claus_, a shift made in colonial America before the age of Independence. St. Nicholas is of course not yet mentioned as such in the _New Testament_; alas, we can spot therein a false bishop named Nicholas mentioned in the _Acts Of The Apostles_, and we read about the detested works of the **Nicholaïtes**. St. Nicholas is said to have saved three Christian virgins from being sold into prostitution, which is exactly one of the misdeeds of the Nicholas mentioned in the acts. Do we smell a connection there? The only student of Pacific Coast Academy able to understand this was Wayne Gilbert, yet nobody would listen to the prophet of ultimate doom.

So, in Europe, the figure of St. Nicholas had accepted, step by step, traits from other mythical figures—including Odin—, ultimately becoming the Santa Claus of modern American popular culture.

* * *

><p><strong><span>2:3 Chase's Despair<span>**

Chase had never even thought about any such connection, but now it made all a lot of sense for him. Alas, alone his memories of the ghost of Charles Galloway were enough to scare him beyond any reason; for that reason, he made immediately connections between Poe's raven, the ghost of the vanquished former student, and the wild hunt.

This wild-hunt-like event had occurred in his presence just a few weeks before the death of his grandmother, and there was little wonder Chase tried to see the connections.

Of course, Chase was not yet willing to believe that he had trusted in the wrong friends, whom he still expected to await his return and to welcome him back in their life. At this point, he did not know that he was about to be backstabbed mercilessly by Zoë, Quindolyn, Dolores, Logan, and Michael. But he sensed deeply that there had to be some deeper link, and he tried hard to force himself into staying somewhere near sane.

Due to these events, Chase started to see his friends in a more critical lighht than he had ever before thought to be able to.

* * *

><p><strong><span>3 Blix' Christmas Campaign And The Campus Of PCA<span>**

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:1 Santa Claus And The Origins Of Blix Softdrinks<span>**

Most of the viewers of _Zoey 101_ and _The iCarly Show_ are well familiar with **Blix**, and omnipresent brand of softdrinks. But little is said about the company as such, except that it must have been a very powerful and influential factor in the market.

The word _blix_ derives from the Dutch expression _bliksem_, denoting a _flash of lightning_. This is a rather popular picture for vendors of drinks (both soft and hard), suggesting that the consumer of the product is supposed to feel instantly invigorated upon enjoying some drink. Indeed, the roots of the company reach back to the Dutch colonisation of America, which was absorbed by the British colonisation after the fall of Nieuw Amsterdam alias New York.

The connection between soft drinks and Santa Claus had got a long and outstanding tradition, and Blix was no exception thereto. Lore told us that one of the reindeers of that weird man of winter was—accorcding to a poem by scholar and romantic poet **Clement Clark Moore**—appropriatlely named Bliksen.

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:2 Blix Claims Bringing Santa Claus To The Children Of The World<span>**

In order to raise its own public reputation, the management of Blix decided to start acampaign in many not-so-well-doing countries of the world, claiming to bring Santa Claus to the children out there. This was just a feeble cover for the damage they did 9in those countries for eleven months of the year by exploiting bthem for cheap labour.

The high-society children of Pacific Coast Academy were also usee by Blix, one of its major sponsors, for a variety of purposes. During most of the year, they were essentially the deceived consumers, but also cheap employees for the purpose of research, development, and marketing. During this Christmas break, however, they were used as gofathers for the campaign of taking Blix and Santa Claus to the third world. The students were supposed to sign up and to donate for the campaign.

Zoë brooks and her friends had all signed up, and they were around one the campus for Christmas in order participate in a few tapings for the campaign; however, all of them had got different expectations from the looming venture—as you will see jus a few lines down the road.

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:3 Quindolyn Pensky—Blix' Team For Research And Development<span>**

Quindolyn Pensky was most excited; this science girl was working actively for Blix as a researcher, and the looming campaign was also the climax of that career. With that Christmas season, Blix was—for the first time—marketing a drink Quindolyn Pensky had been working on for four years: **Frazz**—known to some of you from the 2006 episode _Spring Breakup_.

Before cominmg to study at Pacific Coast Academy, Quinn Pensky had submitted a video to Blix where she showed how much fun she had got mixing Blix' products in order to create explosives, poisons, and other trouble-making chemicals; she had supposed this video to be used as good publicity for the company.

The administration of Blix, which had requested children to submit videos for that purpoose, had decided that Quindolyn's contribution was not useful for that purpose; nevertheless, they were alerted about the dangers of their own products, and they had thereupon hired the young genius in order to fix the defects of Blix' products before the public was alerted. Quinn was granted a scholarship for Pacific Coast Academy, just in order to be close to the headquarters of the company and to keep her mouth shut.

Almost all of her research activities featured throughout the canon of _Zoey 101_ were—in one way or another—related to Quindolyn's quest of debugging the existing and creating some new Blix products; unfortunately, we would have to go far out of our way by describing them and appraising their relevance.

Frazz had been finalised right in time, and so Quindolyn was proudly awaiting this Christmas in order to see the official release of the power drink. The word _Frazz_ is an amalgamation of the italian word _freccia_ (meaning _arrow_) and the German word **Blitz** (meaning _flash of lightning_). The name thus already embodies the whole philosophy of the company.

In order to make the scenario look more Christmas-like (notwithstanding the warm Californian weather), Quinn had devised a machine producing snowflakes to cover (at least part of) the campus for a few days, allowing to emulate Santa Claus' ride on the sleigh through the wonderland of winter.

Among all of Zoë's so-called friends, Quindolyn was the one who had always cared least about Chase Matthews, and thus there was no reason for her to remember the unusual person once he had departed.

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:4 Logan Reese Holds Shares Of Blix Inc<span>**

Modern international business ids very complicated, and a contributing factor to this is the fact that big companies are holding shares of each other.

The sponsors of Pacific Coast Academy were no exception, and so there should be little surprise caused by the fact that **Reese Movies**, the company founded by the father of Logan Reese, was one of the main investors of Blix Inc. This had already had historical reasons, for Logan's grandfather, a man of chemistry mentioned in 2006 episode _Zoey's Tutor_, had been one of the leading researchers of Blix back when PCA was still fairly young, but already firmly in the hands of Hollywood and all the other big players of the business world of California.

The relationship between Quindolyn Pensky and Logan Reese, celebrated by many ingenuous viewers of _Zoey 101_, is nothing but Quindolyn's attempt of tying herself deeper into the company than ever before. As the future wife of one of the main shareholders, she was expecting more influence and responsibility for her research activities, as an important step on her pathy to world domination by means of her eclatant intellectual superiority.

Nevertheless, Logan identified himself fully with the impending activities, and he was going to be the first to donate a huge sum for the project. Really, he was up to renaming Santa Claus to Santa Logan, or at least to Santa Reese, and he promised his false friends to name a few reindeers or elves on their behalf. But the negotiations had yet not taken off, and they would not be finished until Christmas.

Logan and Chase had been room comrades since middle school, but this did not mean that Logan had ever had exhibited some genuine respect for him; rather, he had kapet on taunting him mercilessly because of Chase's feelings for Zoë Brooks, and he had done everything in order to make his comrade feel miserable for his dream relationship. He had always made Chase believe that Zoë would never choose a—in Logan's own words—loser like Chase; and, even though, after the closing special of the series, it may have looked as if he had been wrong, he was now verified by the fact that Chase had repudiated Zoë for her misdemeanour.

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:5 Dolores Martinez As A Santa Faerie<span>**

Most viewers of _Zoey 101_ are aware of Dolores Martinez' wish for conquering the big screen of Hollywood as fast as possible; the looming promotional video clips to be taped on teh campus offered a great opportunity for her: She hoped to become most well-known as an assistant of Santa Claus, and she expected the videos to turn into her ultimate launchpad for an Oscar-awarded career.

Blix had originally not planned to employ students of Pacific Coast Academy for this job, but they were not hard to persuade into giving Dolores a chance. However, some of you will remember that Dolores was allergic to fluffy costumes (cf. 2007 episode _Zoey's Balloon_). Unfortunately, the standard costume of Santa Claus was quite fluffy, as it was supposed to be worn in the middle of winter. But there was a solution to this problem, to be seen just below.

Of course, the scene alsorequired someone portraying Santa Claus; and Blix had chosen **Carl Rivers**, the headmaster of Pacific Coast Academy, to do so. This disapoointed Dolores to no end, as she had expected a younger and more attractive Santa Claus; but she knew that she would have to do what she had to do in order to make her self climb the ladder of a steep career in the world of Hollywood.

Indeed, Dolores had done so from her first day on the campus. Ingenuous viewers of _Zoey 101_ believe that she had got genuine feelings for Chase, as per 2006 episode _Lola Likes Chase_; but, actually, she had only used him in order to train and practise the art of flirting with uncomely partners for the big screen. Her relationshhip with Vincent Blake was another strategical move of hers: As the girlfriend of a successful football player, she had almost automatically been elected prom queen of Pacific Coast Academy; as a consequence, the mass media reporting the event had dedicated over a minute of broadcasting time showing her in her most shiny outfit and makeup—most valuable for increasing her public fame and her chances to make it into the next Oscar-worthy movie. Chase had thus been no more than one of many pawn sacrifices, which she had already been able to forget about, long before this Christmas.

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:6 Zoë Brooks Redesigns The Outfit For Santa Claus<span>**

You know probably very well that Zoë Brooks was—among a few other things—an aspiring designer and creator of fashionable outfit; already in 2005 episode _Spring Fling_, she had designed the outfit for some rock star.

Yet her great breakthrough in the scene had still been pending, and so the Miss Perfect was still waiting for a great occasion. The looming campaign offered a –in her eyes—perfect platform for her career dreams: She wanted to design a most fashionable and creative outfit for Santa Claus and his helpers, to be displayed all over the civilised world by Blix and Reese Movies.

Zoë Brooks was able to design a costume for Dean Rivers alias Santa Clause that did not scare Dolores Martinez, but which—nevertheless—looked quite fluffy from afar; she was even able—with the aid of Quindolyn—to insert some silent ventilation that prevented the headmaster from collapsing; for it was still fairly warm in Los Angeles, and wearing a winter costume was no pleasure at all.

Now, many viewers of _Zoey 101_ would expect that Zoey was heart-broken after Chase's decision to refrain from forgiving her misdeeds; on the other hand, she had dated boys before, got rid of them, and grown over them withing a few days; Chase was no different. She still missed him as a friend, but she had moved one; in addition, Chase had been but a small distraction form her usual dating policy. The careful readers probably remembers not only Zoë's dates with Logan Reese in 2005 episode _The Play_ and 2006 episode _Zoey's Tutor_ (albeit feebly disguised as tutoring appointments), but—even more—that with **Lance Rivers**, the sone of the dean in the eponymous episode from 2007. In both cases, Zoë Brooks was more interested in the boy's family and its connections than in the boy itself—for teh very purpose of upgrading her own social status.

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:7 Michael Barret Ponders Santa Claus And Mr Takato<span>**

For over half a decade, Michael Barret had been the closest friend of Chase Matthews; little wonder, he was most hurt by the separation from his comrade, and he spent most time pondering about all the mistakes he had obviouslky committed; those cases of misdemeanour had made him lose his hitherto closest friend, and he felt there was much more at stake than that.

Just a few days before Chase's return from the United Kingdom, Michael had—as per _Chasing Zoey_—encountered mystery **Mr. Takato**, from whom he had learned riding a stick-operated automobile; none of his friend had wanted to believe him; even more, he had to break up with his inappropriate girlfriend **Lisa Perkins** because he was unable to convince her of Mr. Takato, making himself look like an insaner.

Generally, adult people woulds not admit to having seen Santa Claus in person, either; as a consequence, Santa Claus and Mr. Takato had got a lot in common—a parallelism that did not even escape from the confused yet inquisitive mind of Michael Barret. As a child, Michael had always tried to spot Santa Claus, who, in his family's tradition, had been the bearer of the Afro-Americans' hopes of deliverance from slavery and oppression by the whites; and, even ones, he had believed to have come close, but none of his siblings had ever believed him.

Michael Barret even went one step further, and he concluded that Mr. Takato was no other than Santa Claus in person, and that he had come in order to warn him from Logan Reese and his friends. he had understood that right-wing extremist capitaliust and social-darwinist Logan Reese was little different from the typical white landlords of the old south that had abused and exploited Michael's own people for many a decade. As a consequence, he was no longer willing to fall for the white version of the Santa Claus, whom Michael assoiciated with Logan and his grandiose ideas of world domination by means of bellicism, capitalism, and imperialism.

After junior prom, Michael Barret had heard Wayne Gilbert preach the impending doom and the fall of the empire of Adolf Bradford; thereupon, this cartoon-inspired prophet had left the campus for good. Not willing to succumb again to slavery, Michael saw now the time right for doing the same and to flee from the campus before Logan Reese would establish his new world rule.

* * *

><p><strong><span>4 Dystopia On The Campus<span>**

So it was Christmas Eve on the campus of Pacific Coast Academy, and the whole location was lit like by thousand suns. Logan Reese had established a huge monument of Santa Claus on the campus square, surprising even Dean Rivers. This way,, or so he made everyone believe, the memory of the Christian saint and pagan deity was honoured best.

Not many noticed at first glance that the face of that Santa Clause had exactly the same traits as Logan, and that only the cap and the beard made some kind of a difference. The chief executive officer of Blix was most excited, and he thanked Logan for his magnificient idea, which he expected to boost the campaign beyond any imaginable measure.

Everyone on the campus, present for the begin of the official tapings of the promotional film for Blix' campaign, cheered Logan and his—in their appraisal—great deed. Dean Rivers even delivered a solemn speach in order to inaugurate the—in his eyes—perfect monument.

But, in this moment, dark clouds started to cover the sky and the campus. Zoë immediately remembered the clouds from the events described inm _The Curse Of PCA_, which—as you probably remember—had been the results of Logan's incredible greed and perversity. Against everyone's wish, Logan had taken an artifact from Galloway's doom and hidden it in Zoë's belongings, whereupon the ghost of the deceased students had turned angry and hunted then down, following them to the campus. Zoë and her brethren had believed that, by returning the artifact to the tomb, they had resolved the problems; but now at least Zoey Brooks figured that this was not the case. Too many times had she ever since forced herself into forgiving Logan for his continuing string of misdeeds, but now it was too late. She and her so-called friends had ignored all signs of warnings, and she had even started worshipping the idol of Logan Reese. This time, there was no way for them left to escape, and the whole campus would have to pay the due price for this idolatry.

It is now left up to the reader's imagination what this price would be.

* * *

><p><strong><span>5 Chase Matthews And Addison Singer In Manhattan<span>**

At the same time, a mind-broken and lonely Chase Matthews was wandering the streets of Manhattan; he was unable to return to his home, because he could not bear the void left behind by his grandmother's death; he was not willing to think about his former friends when he spotted a bright flash illuminating the sky—just to disappear on site.

During the last mnonths, he had started making his former friends responsible not only for the treason committed during his life in the United Kingdom, but also for the death of his grandmother, or at least the fact—or whatever he took as a fact since the previous Christmas—that the old lady was lost forever, and that there was no hope, as expressed by the raven, the messenger of the gods. Had he been aware of the news that the campus of Pacific Coast Academy was, in the same moment, struck aghast by the wild hunt of ultimate cleansing; Chase would have cried out that his false friends of the past were about to obtain their just rewards.

In this moment, **Addison Singer**, known to many of you as the star of Nickelodeon's _Unfabulous_, walked past Chase. She was dressed as a poor implementation of Santa Claus, because her brother **Benjamin Singer** had forced her to do so in order to make some money in order to pay back the debts she had accumulated in the juice bar he was running these days. She really hated having to wear this costume, especially as she felt no relationship with the tradition that brought Santa Claus to America. She was a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe, as evidenced in 2007 episode _The Toot_, because she had often been forced to ponder the darker side of life—in one way or the other—, especially since her separation from her frienmds and her former boyfriend **Jake Behari**. The relationship between Addie and Jake, as remembered by some of you, was vastly comparable to that of Chase and Zoë.

Little wonder, Addie had no qualms identifying Chase as her soul comrade—although she had never met him before—; thereupon, she took his hand. Arm in arm, they walked away through the cold of the streets of Manhattan, streets which hold no mmercy and no comfort for anyone, and they started forgetting about the world around them, who had already forgitten about the two of them long since.

* * *

><p><strong><span>Appendix<span>**

Daniel Schneider's workshop producing many a live action show for the Nickelodeon network is—not by accident—known as **Schneider's Bakery**. The Cjhristmas story of the **New Testament** features **Bethlehem**, a location whose name could be rendered as _house of bread_, which ties the two of them closely together. For, when plunging deeply under the surface of _Zoey 101_ and its sister show, we find enough symbolism and allegories alluding to the mythical meaning of the Christmas story, the hopes of an ultimate salvation from the darkness that surrounds us all.

So, while those who wake and pray (in order to perform their due research) will be awarded, there is no balm on Gilead growing for those who deny and ridicule the deeper symbolism hidden in the pictures and the words of these shows.

Nobody had been able to express this need better than **Angelus Silesius**:

**_"_**  
>Though Christ a thousand times<br>In Bethlehem be born  
>If he's not born in thee<br>Thy soul is still forlorn!

**_"_**

**THE END**


End file.
